Goofy Pig
Goofy Pig is a 2001 American fantasy film directed by Sam Weisman ,written by Sam Hamm, and produced by David Hoberman. The film combines live-action with Stop motion animation. Based on Mark Radcliffe's graphic novel Dark City, the stars an ensemble cast led by Freddie Highmore, Elizabeth Gillies, Bryan Cranston, Kirsten Dunst, David Schwimmer, and Billy Crystal. Theatrically released on February 23, 2001 by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film was a box office bomb and received generally negative critical reviews. Plot Jerry McDonald is a disillusioned cartoonist whose comic strip "Piggy in my Pocket!" features a comical, rascal pig named Goofy Pig. Jerry falls in love with a sleep institute worker named Kristen Chase, who helped him deal with his terrible nightmares by changing his drawing hand. One night, Jerry crashes his car after accidentally activating an inflatable Goofy Pig raft, causing him to fall into a coma. His spirit ends up in Down Town, a surreal, limbo-like carnival landscape populated by human beings, mythical creatures and figments of people's imaginations where nightmares are entertainment. In Downtown, Goofy Pig is real. During that time, Jerry befriends a catgirl named Miss Kitty. When Jerry learns that his sister Kimmy is about to pull the plug on him, he asks Hypnos, God of Sleep, for advice. Hypnos tells Jerry that to get back to the living, he has to infiltrate the Land of Death to steal an Exit Pass from Death which are given out to coma victims by Reapers giving them permission to leave Downtown and awaken from their coma. Jerry successfully steals an Exit Pass, but Goofy Pig steals it from him in turn and enters the Land of the Living in Jerry's body through the Revive-O as Hypnos states that they have plans for Jerry's body. When Jerry is locked up, Hypnos later visits the jail cells, where Jerry finds himself locked up with Attila the Hun, Jack the Ripper, and Stephen King, who reveals his nightmare of Gerald's Game pulled the same trick Goofy Pig pulled on Jerry. Hypnos explains to Jerry that he plans to use Jerry's body to get a chemical substance named Oneirix that Kristen developed that gives people and animals nightmares, which gives him more power. Upon being sent to the institute by Hypnos upon reminding him of his mission, Goofy Pig (in Jerry's body) ends up successfully stealing the Oneirix, switching it with another juice. Goofy Pig obtains the Oneirix and puts it inside stuffed Pencil toys of himself (Goofy Pig) so that those who touch them will be infected and given nightmares. With help from Miss Kitty, Jerry escapes from his imprisonment. Goofy Pig in Jerry's body prepares a pinata for the Goofy Pig farting dolls at the party. Meanwhile, Jerry reveals plan to Death upon capture and convinces her to send him back for only an hour, only to find himself in the body of a dead athlete organ donor. As he flees the morgue attendants, Jerry finds out about Goofy Pig planned party and heads there with the extractors still in pursuit. At the party, Jerry's agent, Calvin, exposes himself to the Oneirix in the Goofy Pig doll and ends up seeing in the mirror that his clothes are coming to life. This causes Calvin to run through the party naked, telling everyone that the clothes have come to life and turned evil. After that, Goofy Pig in Jerry's body tells everyone to forget about it as he brings down the Jerry piñata containing the Goofy Pig dolls. Jerry uses Goofy Pig's main characteristics from the comics to cause him to panic and escape. A chase ensues, culminating with Jerry and Goofy Pig battling each other while clinging to a giant Goofy Pig balloon. The balloon is eventually shot down by a passing incompetent police officer and both Jerry and Goofy Pig fall barely enough to be non-fatal and fall unconscious. Jerry and Goofy Pig are falling toward Down Town where the residents cheer on their fight. Just then, all the rides stop and a giant robot emerges near the Revive-O causing everyone to flee the area. When Jerry and Goofy Pig are caught by it, the operator of the robot is revealed to be Death, who seems quite cheerful despite the circumstances. Goofy Pig tries to have Death let him go to the bathroom, but Death places Goofy Pig back in Jerry's head which is where he belongs. Death then uses her robot to send Jerry back to the living. Jerry wakes up in his own body. Jerry then proposes to Kristen and they get married. An erratic Calvin breaks the fourth wall urging the audience to take off their clothes while he yelling to "Piggy in my Pocket!" and the film cuts to an animated sequence where cartoon characters strip their human disguises revealing pigs underneath. Cast * Freddie Highmore as Jerry McDonald, a cartoonist. * Elizabeth Gillies as Kristen Chase, Jerry's love interest. * Bryan Cranston as Death, a cyborg king * Kirsten Dunst as Miss Kitty, a cat girl from Down Town that Jerry befriends. * Carl Weathers as Hubo, the God of Sleep and Death's malicious brother that lives in Down Town. * Richard Grieco as Oliver Donor Jerry, a dead body that Jerry briefly possesses. * David Schwimmer as Calvin, Jerry's boss and friend. * Craig T. Nelson as Neptune that lives in Down Town. * Sarah Vowell as Tracy McDonald, Jerry's sister. * Angelina Jolie as Margret, an inhabitant in Down Town * Craig Ferguson as Leprechaun a dead body that Chris briefly possesses. * Jon Bruno as Stephen King, one of that was tricked into going to the Land of Death before Chris McDonald. * Owen Wilson as Jack the Ripper, one of Hypnos' prisoners. * Paul Sorvino as Timur, one of Hypnos' prisoners. * Rupert Everett as Alexander II, one of Hypnos' prisoners. * Chris Ellis as Anthony Burgess, one of Hypnos' prisoners. * Sacha Baron Cohen as Knight, that lives in Down Town. * Christian Bale as Cricket Man, an inhabitant of Down Town who has the head of a man and the antennae and body of a bug. * Jon Favreau as Demon, an inhabitant of Down Town that operates its movie theater that shows nightmares. * Danny DeVito as Manticore, a manticore in cowboy attire that lives in Down Town. * Martin Klebba as the mole guard of the Down Town prison that works for Hypnos. * Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx as Three-Headed Krampus, a krampus in Down Town that has three heads and three legs. * Derek Mears as Sumo the Cow Claus, a Shiva-like piano player at Down Town's Coma Bar. * Toby Stephens as Satyr, a one-eyed creature with a large head and arms and a smaller torso and legs. * Bruce Byron as Community Service Cigarette Maker, a camel-like inhabitant of Down Town. * Shuler Hensley as Chili Lobster, a humanoid lobster that is a vendor in Down Town. * Jessica Biel as Evania Woman, an insectoid wasp that is often seen with Hypnos. * Rebecca Romijn as Katie the Beefalo, a female Minotaur that is a vendor in Down Town. * Oded Fehr as Iuridae * Bradley Cooper as Jackass Toward * Robert De Niro as Sea Monster, a creature that has a seahorse-like head. * Tom Hardy as Grizzly Kachina Voices * Billy Crystal as Goofy Pig, Jerry's raunchy rascal creation. * Samuel L. Jackson as voice of Grim Reaper * Tim Curry as Jack the Super Reaper * Eddie Murphy as Streetsquashed Snail, a roadkill snail that lives in Down Town. * Paul F. Tompkins as Streetsquashed Frog, a roadkill frog that lives in Down Town. * David Cross as Streetsquashed Spider, a roadkill spider that lives in Down Town. * Monica Bellucci as Krishna * Fran Kranz as Community Service Cigarette Maker * Liam Neeson as Jackass Toward * Channing Tatum as Grizzly Kachina * Chris Coppola as Chili Lobster * Daniel Craig as High Five Production The novel book Dark City, on which Goofy Pig is based, was written by Mark Radcliffe,illustrated by Vanessa Chong and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The journey from comic to film was initiated by a fan of the comic and member of the San Francisco animation community (Tom "Bags" Sacchi/ChasingDragons Productions NYC) who, without Blackley's knowledge, passed a copy of Dark City onto one of Weisman's producers, Denise Rotina. Selick fell in love with the book and vigorously pursued the rights. In a letter to Mark, he wrote: "I've never felt any project was closer to my sensibilities than this one." The initial intention was to stay true to the source material, which can be seen in early designs from Weisman's company, Twitching Image. However, as the project developed, it eventually evolved into Goofy Pig. Influences Much of the film's art bears a strong resemblance to that of Jamie Thraves—for example, the bust of Thomas Jefferson as "The Great Emancipator". Jerry's pre-therapy painting is very similar to Thraves's The Birth, and according to the credits, was painted by him for the film. The animation style and the themes of the opening sequence in which Jerry first encounters Goofy Pig are very similar to the work of Swedish cartoonist Gary Larson. The film's plot is influenced by the films Who Framed Mr. Toad, Animation World ''and ''Beetlejuice. Lots of critics mark a similarity between Dark City's design and Johnny Depp's style. The film contains a large number of references to a parody religion called The Church of the SubGenius. In particular, the fictional fast-food chain "Burger God" was originally a SubGenius creation. Additionally, the repeated references to Yetis, and the scene in which Jerry (whose body is possessed by Goofy Pig) is struck in the head with a golf club by Hypnos in a dream sequence also echo recurring themes in the Church of the SubGenius. Reception Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 19% based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 3.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though original and full of bizarre visuals, Goofy Pig is too shapeless a movie, with unengaging characters and random situations that fail to build up laughs."10 On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."11 Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Box office Goofy Pig became a huge flop at the box office; based on a budget of $75 million, the film grossed $5,411,999 domestically and $7,622,365 worldwide.Category:Films